The Janesville Police Department has a camera in place monitoring overnight parking near the boat launch at the portion of Traxler Park north of the Memorial Street bridge.
Sergeant Dean Sukus says the location and timing of the ordinance change offers some logistical hurdles in getting more cameras set up. The ordinance change was approved by the Janesville City Council on July 22 and went into effect August 1, leaving nine days for the police department to prepare.
The area has a limited number of poles and power supplies for cameras, Sukus said, and they also need to set up server storage capacity to hold recordings of the 24-hour footage for at least 120 days for open records laws.
“Like any other patrol we do in the city, it’s all based on call volume,” Sukus said. “Added extra patrol will come as officers are not busy doing other things. This is obviously one of the top things on our officers’ radar.”
Sukus acknowledged they can’t monitor the area 100 percent of the time, but they’re doing their best to maintain a presence in the area. The police department’s goal is to provide safety for the people in the parking lot as well as the property and the rest of the city.
The patrol sergeants plan to provide regular updates to police chief David Moore, who has the authority to end the overnight parking at any time.
